20 Best Telescope For Beginners To See Planets (2023 Updated)

I plan to update this review as I use the telescope but I want to write about my experience so far. First off, TelescopesPlus. com provided fast shipping which was great. It arrived when I was at work and it stormed that night (I am a firefighter and work 24 hour shifts) so I was worried that it would be damaged on my return.

I found that it had been double boxed then each peice had its own box on the inside. Very well packaged. That said, I am not that pleased that a [$] telescope was left on my front porch even though I live in a quiet community.

The foam that surrounds the telescope and arm is very sturdy. I have set that aside to put in a sterilite case later. I see no reason to purchase one of the expensive cases online unless I plan to travel via air.

This is my first descent telescope. Until now I have been using the less than $100 plastic long tube scopes. As a matter of fact my current longer tube model is a Celestron. I unfornately expected the same thing but grander scale so I set myself up for a let down.

I was WAAAYYYY off. You get what you pay for in this case. First unpacked was the tripod. I have a Canon EOS T1i system with a very nice tripod. This tripod with the telescope is very heavy and sturdy even compared to a high quality camera tripod.

The only thing to put togeter on the tripod was to mount the acessory tray which is a simple knob. Then I opened the box with the scope in it. The scope came attached to the arm already and packed in foam that is about 3″ thick on all sides.

Simply lift it out and line it up. The three knobs do the rest of the work. I mounted the spotting scope and the eye piece, added batteries and I was in business. Very simple. I noticed the eye pieces were not light weight either.

They were heavy quality feeling pieces made out of aluminum. So far I am very happy with my decision to go with this scope. I do have the power tank and the eyepieces as well. I hope to catch some great images very soon.

Of course it won’t stop raining now.

I couldnt find the instructions. But had a celestron nexstar 8se. So, the first attempt to use star sense failed. The second time I remembered to input time and lat long and not turn it off after that.

It automatically aligned! I was looking at the usuals and then Andromeda Galaxy M81. Wow! Second time in 21 years. Im sold on this product. Its affordable. Its automated. A great buy for stargazers.

No problems or issues. Good optics. Good mechanics. Fully assembled weight 10,3 kg. Eats batteries fast, need a powerbank. Included finder is cheap plastic, will throw away. Tripod is very good. Good focuser.

Star diagonal is 9/10, but it is prism type. Buying a 60-180 USD one of dielectric mirror type is a marginal improvement, do it only if budget allows. Included 25 mm Celestron eyepiece is decent, also eyeglass friendly.

Will keep it despite existent collection of Deloses and Pentaxes. No need to replace it even with very expensive ones. Buyers would need in addition, a 7-8 mm eyepiece for planetary observations and 12-14 mm one, those shall be expensive.

What can I say about this beast of a telescope. it gave me wonderful new views of our own Solar system and beyond! It is definitely muss less portable than a small refractor but it gives you views that you could never achieve with a smaller scope.

So you gotta trade in some mobility for an excellent performance at this rather low price. If you really want to you can easily pack it into your car but it is definitely a factor to consider as you might more often than not decide not to take the scope with you, unless you’ve got yourself a nice dark backyard without much light pollution.

Now the product quality of the product itself is very good. When the conditions are good you get perfectly sharp views, absolutely perfect image and I only used standard eyepieces so I reckon the image would even be better with high quality eyepieces.

Especially the Moon is wonderful to observe for minutes and even hours. But definitely get a polarizing filter cause it’s gonna burn out your eyes. Even with a filter I still find it almost too bright to observe which I would never have thought before owning this telescope.

The main reason why I bought this scope was for observing the planets and it is just perfect for that job. You have a good long focal length so you can get up to magnification quite fast without using the smallest of eyepieces.

At perfect seeing conditions I’m sure you can even push it beyond it’s advertised limit of 300x magnification. If the conditions aren’t good you will probably be limited to 150x and below to still get a good quality image.

It was spectacular to see Saturn with it’s rings and even the Cassini Division on the rings for the first time. Jupiter’s bands are gorgeous and you can always try to discover new details on them. Venus’ phase is clearly visible under good conditions.

Mars wasn’t that good even during the opposition, cause it was just too low on the horizon over here. So that’s a bit of a shame but has nothing to do with the telescope itself. And the Moon is just mindblowing.

You see so many new details you’ve newer known to even exist on our own Moon. The size of the 6-inch is definitely big enough to get much light in and can still be transported around places. I would not go for a bigger version than the 6-inch if you plan on moving around a lot.

Also if you’re not at all interested in planets maybe better get a good refractor to be able to move to dark places more easily and you don’t need to collimate it which is something you gotta do on Reflectors.

Although collimation on this scope is fairly easy and forgiving i still spent some couple hours on it to really figure it out properly and I’m still not sure if I’m doing it perfectly right. I’ve never been able yet to test this scope at a really dark site or with nebula filters but that is definitely on my to-do list.

After working with only binoculars for nearly two years, I decided my commitment to Astronomy was genuine and chose the XT6 as my scope. I purchased a “second,” and for the life of me can’t find a single defect.

Both mirrors are immaculate. Collimation was perfect right out of the box, and I haven’t had to adjust it since. I can not praise this scope enough. It is both a beginner and a lifetime instrument if you so desire.

I’ve had it for 10 months and it has already revealed the wonders of the solar system (saw the disc of Uranus the other night! Tiny, but it was clearly there!), and the glories of dozens of deep sky objects.

And lunar detail is mind blowing! Caveat emptor: the scope is both bigger and heavier than photos or even videos might lead you to believe. I was torn between this scope and the XT8, and I’m glad I chose the XT6.

Any thing heavier would have been a bit much for my 55 year old bones. And don’t be put off by the “aperture fever” koolaid drinkers who say it doesn’t have enough aperture. This is the scope amateur astronomers of just a few decades ago would have given their right arms for, and it’s as powerful as it ever was.

Under dark skies and the right conditions, it can show you the Herschel 400. What more do you want? A few minor quibbles: I would have preferred a traditional straight-through optical finder scope rather than the EZ Finder II.

At zero power, the EZ Finder is virtually useless for deep sky objects which is where long tube dobs excel. A matter of taste, I guess, but I’ll be replacing it soon with a regular finder scope. Also, a second eyepiece would have been nice.

Almost every other scope in Orion’s catalog comes with two eyepieces. Why don’t the classic dobs? Other than that, this is the scope of your dreams! Get it!.

I bought this as a second although it was as good as new but a little bit out of alignment. I have had it out twice to view on the planets and moon and it has a really good mirror on it I can already tell after having several scopes over the years.

I have even try to collimate it yet but it was still in the balk park for use and it didn’t disappoint, either. It is so much better than my short focal length 4. 5 inch scope that I got for 50 bucks on the planets.

The first night out I got the best view of Saturn I ever had in any scope and the second best on Mars. it was better in 2003 when it was closer and viewed it with an 8 inch f6. That 8 inch inch f6 still gave the best view of Jupiter I have still seen, however.

Despite being slightly out of collimation the moon was really excellent. I had another 6 inch f8 back in 90’s and this gave better crisper views. It most likely isn’t quite a 5 or six inch tele vue or takahashi apo refractor on the planets but for $250 shipping and taxes included it can’t be beat for planets and moon.

I bought this from Best buy a few days ago, and have hand 2 nights to use it for a few hours. First, let me say this, Im very experienced with telescopes, observing, Astrophotography etc. Astronomy is my passion and I own probably a dozen serious telescopes, tripods, mounts, accessories, astro cameras etc.

I would not recommend this telescope. Ill start with the good, the Optical tube itself isnt bad at all. the optics arent bad, the focuser, although plasticy, is smooth and accepts larger 2″ eyepieces and the 5″ f/5 mirror offers some pleasing wide field views, and does decently well on the lunar, planetary, and brighter deep sky objects.

The app itself, Star Sense Explorer, is really cool, its the best part of the whole package. it can be a little buggy but in general, its very accurate, and allows you to locate tons of objects with ease.

The Bad: the tripod/ mount aren’t great. although it does have slow motion controls which is a plus, its cheap feeling, made of plastic, its shaky, with vibration taking a long time to settle down, and wost of all, probably the deal breaker for me, is that the telescope can not point to Zenith.

or anywhere near it. the scope maxes out at maybe 70°, hitting the tripod. this blocks the scope from viewing a huge portion of the sky, the darkest and clearest part of it. which is absolutely unacceptable for an astronomical telescope.

The mount simply doesn’t work with this optical tube. The accessories are also pretty poor. a 25mm and 10mm Kellner, made with cheap plastic barrels, while my work acceptably well in a slower refractor, are heavily abberated and very poor performers in an f/5 Newtonian.

Coma, and field curvature smear out stars everywhere but the exact center of view. Overall, the decent tube and good app are nullified by poor accessories and a completely incompatible tripod. Im may just use the OTA on another mount and adapt the star sense dock to another telescope.

If you want a real telescope, buy from a telescope dealer. The new 8″-10″ dobsonian versions of this series would be far far better, certainly worth the extra few hundred.

This is my first real telescope and my first time reviewing one so take my review with a grain of salt. As someone who recently took a strong interest in astronomy and look all over for a high quality but still affordable telescope you options do become rather limited in the affordable range.

This was the highest end Telescope Best Buy sold on their website (going strictly by the 130mm number and price compared to the other Celestron telescopes on here) and the price was just at the limit of the money I wanted to spend for my first telescope.

And I will say I am loving this telescope a few months later. Comes with everything needed to get started observing the stars and planets. I would recommend using the moon on a clear night to really get a full grasp on what you can see with it.

Now keep your expectations in place, don’t buy this telescope and think you will see Saturn and Jupiter like they appear in pictures from Hubble or Voyager. But you will still be able to see them and with the two eye pieces with plenty of clarity in a way you just can’t with the naked eye.

It comes with two eye pieces with different magnification and it’s a good place to start. You can buy more eye pieces which I will be doing shortly for more viewable and filters. So I can’t speak on them yet but with what is included for the price and ease of use and for beginners just starting out.

And the app which once you get it aligned and learn how to use it with the telescope helps finding objects in the sky with extreme ease. Overall highly recommend this for people just starting out.

The Celestron Starsense Explorer DX 130AZ is a well made refractor beginning telescope that utilizes the processing power of newer cellphones in conjunction with a Starsense Explorer App that provides for manual guidance of the telescope to a selected celestial object.

By moving the telescope using arrows on the App towards the user’s chosen object, one can not only reach the chosen object to view, but also develop a greater knowledge of the location of celestial objects in the sky.

A clear sky is required for the App to function correctly, but due to the provided red dot finder a user can also manually find objects in the sky the “old-fashioned” way. The OTA with a f/5 focal ratio five inch (130mm) aperture and 650mm focal length allows for sufficient light gathering power to be able to view objects clearly and sharply.

The OTA is made of steel with other parts of the telescope made of a high quality plastic. The tripod is aluminum. The focuser is a 2 inch rack and pinion type with an included adapter for the use of 1.

25 inch eyepieces. Included 1. 25 inch eyepieces are fair quality 1. 25 inch 25mm and 10mm.

This is the first telescope I have ever tried to look through. The build quality was good and assembly was straight forward. However, we are yet to explore the full power of the scope yet. Waiting for the right weather condition for it.

So far, I haven’t been able to see anything other than stars, which are showing up as little dots anyway. Taking stars away for these reasons. 1. ) The Go-to- controller is a bit clumsy. We have hard time reading the information against the orange light especially when information text is sliding right to left quite fast.

2. ) For some of the objects I tried, I got warning about telescope colliding with telescope mount if I continue. I continued because the text wasn’t very clear on display and luckily I realized that the telescope would bump into base had I not turned it off.

I don’t understand why the software lets the telescope mount to move when it knows that doing so would damage the scope. 3. ) Should have come with power adapter.

I live in the Tampa Bay area of Florida and finding a dark place requires driving. I used to use an equatorial refractor but it was just a pain to set up and manual tracking is no fun either. The stand also weighed a bit.

This scope I set up in the dark in about 5 minutes and had aligned in another couple minutes. Be sure to make sure you set to the right time. It makes a difference. The skyalign feature isn’t exact but accurate enough as long as you know what you’re looking for.

Orion Nebula was in my view field but not centered. And it looks awesome through this scope. My only issue is the finder scope. It won’t center if tightened in it’s dove tail. Really my only reason for the 4* rating.

My suggestion if you have the same problem is center the eyepiece first and then look to see the position of the same star or whatever and that’s your center point. I purchased the Celestron lens package and battery backup and I don’t regret it.

The lenses it comes with are not the best and after reading other reviews about how the align can drain batteries fast I figured I would spend that on batteries. I haven’t run out of juice yet. The software it comes with is a little out of date (windows 95/98/2000 compatible).

They do have a celestron app though and that is pretty good. I suggest also putting the tube in some kind of secure bag with padding to protect it when transporting. And one last thing, B & H is where to buy from.

Just got this home tonight and unboxed/haven’t officially used it yet. Keep in mind, I own many telescopes and have enjoyed astronomy for many years. I wasn’t expecting much for the price, but here are my first impressions: This is a plastic telescope with “ok” optics, not something for any “serious” astronomy/observing, other than the moon or a fleeting glimpse of Saturn or possibly Mars.

It will give a good close-up view of the moon surface, but not at a high resolution. Mars will look like a small reddish circle (SMALL), and will be able to tell that Saturn has rings, but will not be much more than a yellowish circle that has a slight bulge around the middle (the rings).

It might be okay for terrestrial viewing (distant mountains/landscapes, etc. ), so don’t expect greatness. The construction is all plastic, with only a few metal parts. This makes the entire setup very lightweight and easy to carry, which is it’s strongest attribute.

Don’t tighten any of the screws/knobs more than just enough to keep things from falling off, otherwise you risk stripping the threads. The OTA tube itself is plastic with a decal covering that looks neat, but it’s still just plastic.

I keep mentioning plastic as that means the entire assembly could be damaged/broken if treated roughly, so just be nice to it and it should work well. The tripod leaves a lot to be desired. Yes it is lightweight, but is very susceptible to vibration from even just a slight puff of wind which will result in a “shaky” image.

The pan/tilt (Alt/Az) controls are identical to a cheap camera tripod (in fact, this can certainly be used for a small “point-n-shoot” type camera just fine) and do not lend themselves to easy tracking of objects (remember, the moon and earth are moving relative to each other and will not stay centered in the eyepiece for but a few moments – this requires a constant and gentle “tracking” of objects as they move across the sky).

Mine did not come with the Barlow lens, but I have other high quality eye pieces and filters that I can use (it takes standard 1. 25″ eyepieces). The included eyepieces (10mm and 20mm) are okay for this scope.

Better eyepieces are available but won’t be of big benefit on this scope. Honestly, this would not be my first choice in a beginner telescope, as for a little more money ($150 range) you can get a much bigger/better scope that would provide better planetary viewing.

This might be a nice thing to bring along on a family camping trip to keep the kids occupied, as it is a very lightweight and compact unit, but like I said above: don’t expect greatness. I purchased this for a specific purpose of sighting in my rifle instead of a much more costly spotting scope.

This actually provides much better magnification than an entry-level spotting scope sold at sporting goods retailers for a fraction of the cost, with a trade off that this scope isn’t as “field-durable” as the more costly options.

For my purposes, this is a fantastic choice. For astronomers, this is below average. You DO get the Starry Night software included, which is a nice software package for astronomy, although I still prefer Stellarium.

There is also a free ebook download with amazing images of the moon. The cell phone adapter isn’t anything special, although it will allow you to actually take some nice pics with your phone. The cell phone mount is not capable of supporting a DSLR (nor is the scope or tripod, for that matter), so this is not an ideal setup for astrophotography aside from taking a few memento types of pics to post on social media.

The backpack is padded with a few pockets and a divider that will hold everything, but won’t provide much in the way of protection from bumps/drops/etc. My review sounds very negative but I’m trying to be honest.

it’s an okay product, and it will work as intended. Just don’t set too high of expectations and if you are looking at starting out with astronomy, I feel there are better options. Celestron is a great company and they make quality products, so this would be a better choice than an equally priced knock-off brand, but again – make sure your expectations are realistic for a sub-$100 telescope.

First telescope I buy and it has performed as expected. From my city with usually foggy skies and much light pollution I’ve been able to see Moon craters, Jupiter’s moons and Saturn’s rings. Easy to mount and use.

Also good for terrestrial observation. The only shortcoming I see is that the aim always moves down somewhat inmediately after locking the handle. Maybe the tripod isn’t rigid enough. But overall I’m happy with this purchase.

This is a good telescope! 1. OTA: The Optical Tube Assembly is relatively fast @ f/5. It is clear and bright. 2. Tripod: The tripod is somewhat wobbly, especially if you extend the center column. Use a good tripod.

I chose to use my Manfrotto tripod with a Manfrotto fluid head. Luckily the telescope has 1/4 X 20 mounting holes (common photo size), so mounting it on a good tripod will not be a problem. 3. Finderscope: The finderscope is okay, but it mounts with somewhat flexible plastic mount.

I chose to replace it with a Celestron Star Finder Finderscope, which is very easy to use and comes with a sturdy mount that fits nicely on the telescope. Happy stargazing!.

I picked one of these over 5 years ago on sale and it compliments using larger reflecting telescopes. The high ‘f ratio’ number in refractor telescopes gives a crisp clear image when observing lunar and planetary detail.

Also, you can use less expensive eyepieces with greater eye relief and magnification than with ‘fast’ low ‘f ratio’ refractors. I prefer this over my 110 mm reflectors when observing the planets and lunar terrain.

It’s a grab and go and relatively light weight. One suggestion is to have the handle ‘reversed’ to provide better tripod balance. A common weakness in most less expensive systems is with the mount stability.

A good refractor in the city,with light pollution,can outperform a reflector twice its’ aperature.

Very nice optical quality in a lightweight and easy to use package. Great as a first telescope for these reasons. Dovetail mounting means that you can easliy mount the scope onto an equatoriel when you’re ready to take the plunge into real astronomical observations.

The lens is good quality and gives as good an image as any 70mm achromatic telescope. I would recommend this telescope, especially for kids as it is so easy to use and it’s very light for carrying out to the garden.

Looks the part, but, flimsy construction of scope and tripod, pointer difficult to use, EQ mount function difficult to understand at first. Complex setting up procedure unsuitable for beginners IMO. Sticky focus knobs.

Images poor quality. Hi mag x100 almost impossible to use because of poor tripod/shaking. If you are looking for a beginners stargazing system, try astronomical binoculars on a stout camera tripod preferrably with a pointer.

You can buy a decent (Celestion) system for half this price. I’m returning mine.

I sympathise with the other reviewer. I had similar difficulties on the initial excursions. To plate solve effectively the app does need more than a few stars, but on a reasonably clear night, once aligned, its pretty good for this novice to find basic objects in the night sky.

The red dot finder is a pain for an older neck but, when aligned correctly to the scope, it helps initially to check the scope is pointing where you think it should be. At present this scope is on par with binoculars for what I’m able to see, given the light polluted sky and bad weather recently.

I shall persevere. Already bought a 2″ diagonal and more eyepieces. I can see this becoming a money pit! But for someone who really does not have the time, nor the expertise, to learn the night sky, I find this relatively cheap computerised assistance a great boon.

I’m using an old Samsung J5 phone and the App works well. I expect a more powerful modern phone would be quicker. The tripod is stable enough on a still night.

When you get this very large telescope, you really think you have a nice piece of equipment, but the clarity of the scope is more like a toy. You can see the same images with binoculars. You can also find things like bright stars and moons much quicker with binoculars.

The large cell phone holder is nothing more than an app. There are many sky and stat apps that use your cell phone to help you tour the sky, I thought the cell phone mount was so I could take pics of what I saw in the scope.

This is not at all how this works. The App itself never is able to see my scope, constantly says “cannot locate scope”. You have to realign it over and over and when all of that is done, you get a slightly clearly ball of light for a star and a pic of the moon you can see with Binoculars.

I realize in the world of Telescopes paying almost $200 is not alot of money and I am a beginner. But $189 for a product that appeared to at least take pics with a phone is frustrating. The quality of this scope if very nice on the outside.

Its size is huge, which also makes you thing you are really going to see something when you look through it. I think the description needs to be much more clear as to what you can see throught this scope, and what it actually does with a cell phone app.

The current description is quite vague.

I’ve been very happy with my 6SE. Ordered it in Sept 20 and along with everything else, was a backordered a couple of months, receiving it in Nov 20. The additional eyepieces from OPT arrived about 6 weeks after the scope.

The delay wasn’t the fault of OPT, everyone was on backorder. And I received emails now and then with the status of my order. Like everything else, there is a learning curve but it’s small, this is so easy to use.

The hand controller and alignment is a little confusing at first but you quickly get the hang of it (reading instructions helps) and you’re off. I love the way I can select what I want to see and it automatically goes there.

It’s in view and I just slightly center it. Like everything else, as soon as I got it began wishing I had bought the 8SE but as use the 6SE more and more, I believe I made the better choice with the smaller one.

It’s lighter and much easier to move in and out of the house. I can just get up and walk out with it all set up, put it down and start the alignment. The moon seems like you’re right there. I got this at the perfect time to see Mars at opposition and Jupiter & Saturn at their closest in the sky for several years.

It amazes me I can see the rings of Saturn 905 MILLION miles away, from my backyard. In addition, I’ve found Uranus (looks like a star), The Pleiades (unbelievable), The Andromeda galaxy (a light smudge in the sky).

Orion’s Nebula (like thin smoke) and several nebulas and double stars. The negatives – the finder scope is a toy at best. Celestron should be ashamed to put that on their scopes. Plan on replacing it right away.

Once I added the Orion 9×50 finder scope my enjoyment factor shot up 100%. The added eyepieces OPT included with this package are ok, but other than the moon filter, I haven’t used them. The 25mm one the comes with the scope is the perfect one.

I also bought a Orion Planetary 9mm eyepiece and is what I consider essential after the 25mm. You’ll also need a power supply (power pack works), 8 AA batteries will get expensive. I think you can tell I’m very pleased with my 6SE and given the chose, would buy it again as well as recommend this to anyone starting off.

Great for beginning or intermediate users. Easy to break down and move about and setup. I have owned mostly Meade scopes and being the first celestron scope I was fairly impressed with the outcome. Views were sharp on distant stars and the moon looked extremely clear.

Can take short exposure photos but most long time exposure photos would take more advanced and expensive equipment. I bought mine used but even new theyre a good bargain. I use an adapter for power and the cord could have been longer, but an extension allows more flexibility.

The Nexstar 8se is, on the whole a great telescope. Celestron have developed an affordable 8″ light bucket with a go to alt-az mount which is excellent for observations through an eyepiece. The alt-az alignment procedure is very straightforward, although this works best when performed manually as opposed to the auto two star alignment.

The 8se can be used for astrophotography, however it will require a wedge to convert the mount to an equatorial. Celestron do make a compatible wedge, but these do not come cheap. Also, a 2″ focal reducer will greatly increase the field of view for large scale deep sky objects but this is again, a separate purchase.

Although the telescope will run off AA batteries, it will rinse them in no time, therefore a power tank which will last a lot longer is another add-on worth investing in, and seems to allow the scope to move more smoothly.

Aligning the 8se with a wedge for astro imaging is a little more complicated, but there is an easy to follow guide on the Celestron website. The add-ons can make this an expensive purchase, but the telescope itself is a good starting point, and the extras can be purchased over time.

I purchased mine during lockdown and feared I may have invested a lot of money in an ephemeral hobby which would subside when life returned to normal; and while there are a lot of telescopes on the market which can be hobby-killers, it has certainly not been the case with this one.

It has opened up the heavens to me.

Likes: -Set up only takes 10-20 minutes. -Eye pieces are well-crafted and the main mirror allows for clear views. -Ability to automatically slew to objects in the sky with the touch of a button. -Celestron carrying case is great for all of the small accessories.

Dislikes: -Telescope stand isn’t sturdy enough to prevent vibration or shaking. Unfortunately, this makes it difficulty to fully enjoy the image you are looking at. There are vibration pads for purchase, but you would think this would be built into the stand from the start (especially with the price you are paying).

-Too many items/pieces to bring when going out to a viewing site, so not as portable. Any cases online are very overpriced also.

I ordered a telescope last year. OPT told me it was in stock. After several inquiries and after 6 wks had passed, I was told it would take at least another 6 wks. I cancelled because this would be a February delivery and I now had no scope for my son’s Christmas.

They should have told me up front, I don’t know why I came back but I did. Initial impressions of new Powerseeker 127EQ: Easy ordering, delivered in 6 days. Set up/assembly complete in about 1hr. First images, absolutely terrible.

Aberrations/diffraction causing at least 32 separate images. OK for looking at the big bright moon, awful for anything else. I will try alignment corrections but if there is no improvement, this device is just no good for star gazing.

This is a good ‘scope for the money. It is a full length real Newtonian, with full equatorial mount, fine-adjustment knobs and all. It’s not the most solid mount I’ve seen, but adequate, given the (light) weight / small size (4 inch — that’s small for me).

It does take patience an some understanding of how the earth turns to use the mount right, but once you do, it’s worth it, for tracking at high magnification. The ‘scope has way more light and clarity and magnification than other ‘scopes in this price range.

I got this for a beginner, but it’s not just a toy — you can see some serious space objects out there. The finder scope is sharp, but the mount for it is not really stable — you have to be more careful than most people are.

I may just put tabs on the top and bottom of the main tube, or figure out how to really secure the finder more tightly. I’m happy with this purchase.

This scope is ok the eyepieces are ok and are usable but I recommend upgrading the eyepieces. I saw the moon with it. It was excellent and the Orion nebula was ok. The finder is plastic but works well.

And it has a Bird-Jones focuser and a spherical primary mirror. But that has not affected the view. I recommend it for a person who is confident in polar alignment for a beginner who does not know anything not so much.

Polar alignment might be a pain like most equatorial mount telescopes. But overall it is good also this telescope has shown me more objects than my other scope, a 70mm refractor.

The Celestron Travel Scope 70 is a short-tube f/5 refractor, focal length is 400 mm. If all you want to do is look at wildlife or scenery, you will be pleased with this telescope. All the body parts are made of plastic to reduce weight.

Celestron has chosen to supply a flimsy tripod, again in order to reduce the weight. Let’s start with the most important part, the 70mm doublet objective lens, which gives adequate performance at this price point.

Slight purple fringing from chromatic aberation will be noticed at the highest magnification. This telescope comes with two eyepieces, a 10 mm Kellner and a 20mm Kellner, giving magnifications of 40 X and 20 X respectively.

Celestron supplies an erecting prism diagonal, with 32mm barrel diameter, which is a good choice for terrestrial viewing. This telescope is not really suited or intended for astronomical viewing. The tripod is too wobbly, and the finderscope, a 5 x 24 is very dim and blurry.

However, it could do occasional astronomical viewing of brighter objects like the Moon and planets, which are easy to locate.

I have purchased this particular Telescope before the Pandemic I have found that this particular Telescope the Celestron Travel Scope is easy to use. I also found that while I can attach the Celestorn Star Pointer Finders Scope item # 51630 I believe the one that came with the Telescope is just fine.

I know it can be raised but it is a wobbly central column but I will raise it as an option. I will also use a 90 degree Diagonal. All in all I like this particular Telescope it’s very easy to use and I have to get use to the Tripod.

I also am using the Celestron Hummingbird Tripod I am waiting for an extra Quick Release Adapter Plate from Celestron and I will attach it to my other Telescope. All in all it’s a Great Little Telescope and I love how it looks I strongly recommend this Particular Telescope.

I only just bought this scope at the weekend online and Wex delivered prompty in less than 48hrs which I was really impressed, so thank you Wex good job. Lovely scope, I could see that the optics in the eye piece were first class (as you would expect from Celestron) when doing some day light distant land object checks.

I found aligning to three bright objects initially quite difficult, but that was just because I hadn’t read the quick instructions properly. I needed to zero in the finder scope (red dot scope) when I got a bright object in the eye piece view of the main scope.

Once I’d done that getting the two other aligning bright objects was a lot easier. I was hooked after that and first night observed a lovely Jupiter and three moons were visible and some faint stripes on the surface.

Saturn was clear and nicely showing off her rings. Then I toured local M objects like Andromeda and M32 and saw some lovely double stars and clusters. Well worth the purchase, I would suggest getting a celestron PowerTank to power this if going to travel to dark sky locations.

A nights intensive usage, I could here the 8xAA’s start to dry out of juice. Also as I’m into astro-photography, I have today bought a T adapter and T ring for my Nikon DSLR to attach to the rear of the scope.

I would definitely recommend this scope for a beginner to intermediate. I would suggest for more advanced users to save money until they have enough for the 8″ version to be able to see all the distant objects in the database.

I recently purchased the Stellina. I also have the Celestron Nexstar 8 SE, which I absolutely love however I have a very difficult time “like many others I’m sure” at understanding the whole processing and stacking with PC or Labtops part of astrophotography.

Lucky Stellina takes away that headache. I have a brain injury which make it very difficult to learn new things that I didn’t know prior to my accident. And trying to figure out astrophotography was especially hard being that I have such a passion for it.

With the Stellina any image I view it has all the info about it right there on the screen. So it’s less I need to try and remember. The only reason I give Stellina 3 out of 5 stars is because 1, with todays technology along with the price tag of this scope you would think you would be able to view planets as well as DSO’s.

And 2ndly, there should be a way to move the telescope manually. I don’t mean having to enter the coordinates, there should be something like arrow keys in the Stellina app that allow you to move the telescope in any direction.

Other that those two things that I feel could be very easily addressed I highly recommend this telescope to both the beginners and seasoned stargazer’s.

The original version of etx 90 is what I’m reviewing. The optics are first class, with pinpoint stars and great planetary details for a 90mm scope. I replaced my original finder with a RA finder ( Meade accessory).

I cleaned the gearing, and WD40’d them, after the drive acquired a hiccup every few seconds. I suspect that this is why so many were traded in at a fraction of their value. My efforts have been successful, and my etx90 is now performing perfectly 21 years later.

My last view of Mars, about weeks ago, showed the northern polar cap and surface details that rival bigger telescopes of other types that I have owned.

The ETX is a small, light 90mm aperture Maksutov telescope/spotting scope of good quality. It can easily handle magnifications up to 40-50x per inch of aperture and will show good detail on the Moon and even some planets.

Terrestrially, it is powerful so a low-power eyepiece (32-35mm) for 39x is a must-have for first looks. The small finderscope works well as a pointer for the main instrument, but is close to the main tube so it takes getting used to.

Because of the magnification this scope is capable of, a good stable tripod (not cheap) and ideally a pan-tilt video style head is a good idea. The scope is easily small and light enough for air travel.

Remember to allow the scope 15-20 minutes to reach temperature equalibrium when going from a warm environment to a cold one, to allow for the best performance from it. The scope can be used as a long camera telephoto lens with adapters but at 1250mm focal length, good light in the daytime and a sturdy tripod is needed for best results.

The telescope arrived quickly. Set-up was a breeze. Got spectacular pictures of the moon the first night of use. Waiting for a clear night to see other objects. I ordered a better viewfinder. The one that comes with the scope is accurate but wiggles around.

Also ordered two more eyepieces and a barlow. Being able to attach my camera to a separate port is a definite advantage. Just flip the mirror and go to using the eyepiece with the camera still attached.

The tripod is heavy and stable. There could have been some kind of hook for the computer control but the coiled cord is short enough to keep it from hitting the ground if dropped. It was a hard decision to pick this telescope over the models offered by Celestron.

I am happy with my decision.

This was a gift for a friend. According to another more experienced friend, this product is an excellent beginner product. The recipient is very satisfied!

This is a great telescope for beginners. I assembled it with my 13YO nephew in about 15 minutes, and he was running it by himself in no time. Finding planets, adjusting aim, changing eyepieces, everything.

We’ve gotten great views of the moon and a look at Saturn that rivals open night at the local observatory. It’s amazing to watch it orient itself. Just press one button, stand back, and watch it look around for a few minutes.

It recognizes constellations, and then calculates the entire sky from there. Once oriented, a few simple button pushes will get it to point itself at the celestial object of your choice. You can select from among the currently visible planets, a vast catalog of stars, or an automatically generated list of the most interesting objects visible that night from that location.

You can also point the telescope at an object and ask it to identify what’s in that vicinity. The one problem is that orientation is done with a camera attached directly to the tripod, not the telescope’s own optics.

With magnification that high, even a minute variance in angle can make miles of difference. So, while the computer can get you in the right ballpark, you’ll probably need a few minutes of fine tuning to actually get the view lined up.

(Again, my 13YO nephew can do this by himself. ) The telescope computer does have a calibration option. It will point at a bright star, center it in the camera, and then ask you to center the star in the telescope’s field of view.

We haven’t tried that yet, so I don’t know how much it helps and whether or not it’s necessary to redo the calibration every night. I should note that I went ahead and splurged on the accessories kit.

We haven’t had use yet for any of the color filters, but the Moon filter is a must, as is the 6mm eyepiece (for closer magnification on planets). Lunar observation is both easy and breathtaking, but it’s painfully bright to look at without the filter.

This telescope is a great value. Its 70mm lens is much better than the 60mm usually found in a telescope in this range. People generally focus on magnification in evaluating a telescope, but the size of the objective lens is just as important.

As a practical matter, useful magnification is about 50 to 60 times per inch of objective lens; there are 25mm to an inch. Any magnification above that is largely useless. This telescope has a useful magnification of about 175x, achievable with its included 4mm eyepiece.

This is enough for most observation needs. You do not need to use the included Barlow Lens. Even an expensive instrument can only rarely benefit by much higher power, due to atmospheric conditions. Another thing I like about it is that it uses an Azimuth mount, not an Equatorial.

An Equatorial is a pain to set up and use, and it must be set up EXACTLY right to work or it is useless. This is only for the serious amateur. Another point is that an Equatorial will not track the moon and planets, it is used only for the “fixed stars”.

If you just want to look at the moon or planets or Orion as well as use it for terrestrial observation, you are much better off with an Azimuth mount that this telescope has. This is particularly true if it is meant as a gift to a juvenile.

If you give such a person a telescope with an Equatorial mount, you are likely to turn him off from Astronomy for good. This is a good telescope for a juvenile. The laser finder provided with it works quite well for getting visible objects in the field of view of the eyepiece.

The mount is sturdy and the three eyepieces give a good range from 35, 70, to its its maximum useful 175x. All in all, an excellent value.

This is the telescope you are looking for. You are searching for the right telescope, so many options, so many things you don’t understand about telescopes. This is what you want. Great optics, easy to set up, affordable.

Buy this one, you will not regret it. I bought this telescope for $40 on sale during Christmas several years ago. I have carried it everywhere since. This scope, the price, the experiences with it are what made me love star gazing! I knew nothing about telescopes before I bought this one.

After several years of star gazing, this is my go-to scope, everytime. I own several more expensive telescopes that are just too complicated and tedious to set up and don’t deliver. Please don’t spend a ton of money on a telescope that you won’t use because it’s too difficult to set up.

This telescope can go anywhere and take a beating. You can clearly see Saturn’s rings and moons, Jupiter’s colors and moons and so many other awesome nebulas, star clusters and other space objects. The upgrades (i.

e. lenses, filters etc. ) are so affordable and worth it. Just buy this telescope and get on with it. After buying “stronger” scopes, you will return to this one time and time again. Trust me. Hope this helps.

Enjoy!.

I am very pleased with this purchase and it largely meets my aim of a low cost instrument that will be quick to set up and convenient to use. The tripod gives a secure base for operation, although it should be noted that the triangular accessory holder is required for best stability and is a bit of additional fiddle in the dark.

For best speed of bringing the instrument into use I have kept it in a largely assembled state so that it can just be bolted on to the tripod. This does require a suitable storage system to be made. The eyepieces have been good so far and the mirror system enables viewing from a convenient position.

The red spot view finder is good in theory, but in practice I have not found it particularly helpful. It works on bright objects, which were easy to aim at anyway. If the target is a dim object or a dark area of sky I have found it easier simply to sight along the telescope.

Although the system is not on an equatorial mount, the altazimuth mount makes for simple setting up and since most use will be with lower magnifications it is not difficult to keep objects in the field of view.

I now have three of these telescopes to use with a small group of teenagers.

We bought this telescope for the deck on our new home. We are away from all the lights of town/the city and our boys wanted to get one. This one was so easy to get together, easy to find stars and other objects in the sky and the lenses work great.

I was a little skeptical because the price was low but I am more than happy we chose this product. The kids use it all the time and the adults do too!!.

This is a great telescope for kids, as the tripod adjust short enough for little legs, and the tripod itself is sturdy (no accidental tipping). The three eyepieces can just be rotated through, so there is no time wasted screwing in a different one like with some telescopes, and it has a phone holder.

I like that this telescope came with a bag for storage and transport.

I gave this to my son who assembled it and shared views of the moon with his children. One problem he has is that he hasn’t figured out how to attach his phone to it to take pictures. It seems the directions were not clear.

It’s surprising since he Is very device knowledgeable.

TranslateShow in original languageAllrounder mit sehr eingeschränkter Verwendbarkeit Auf der Suche für einen Einstieg in die Hobbyastronomie habe ich mich wegen der vielseitigen Verwendbarkeit für dieses Teleskop entschieden.

Da es seitenrichtig anzeigt, ist es nicht nur als astronomisches Teleskop, sondern auch als terrestrisches Fernrohr (Spektiv) verwendbar. Wegen der kurzen Brennweite von 400 mm ist es recht kompakt. Mit dem Sonnenfilter deckt es fast alle Beobachtungssituationen ab.

Das Ganze kommt in einem kleinen Rucksack, Gesamtgewicht etwa 2,5 kg. Ideal, um auch auf langen Wegen zu Fuß oder per Fahrrad zum Beobachtungsplatz mitgenommen zu werden. So weit, so schön. Leicht war es ja, wie ich vorsichtig auspackte, mein erstes Teleskop! Aber ich stellte auch gleich fest: sehr viel Kunststoff, also mit viel Gefühl anfassen und die Kordelschrauben z.

B. zur Arretierung des Okulars mit noch mehr Gefühl betätigen. Schönes Wetter, die Nacht schien klar zu werden, also alles vorbereiten zum ersten Beobachtungs-Abend! Aber dann wich langsam die Vorfreude einer immer größeren Enttäuschung.

Stativ und Montierung sowie Okular- und Sucherfernrohrhalterung sind unpräzise und wackelig. Das Sucherfernrohr lässt sich nicht einwandfrei justieren. Damit lässt sich das Teleskop gerade mal halbwegs bei 20-facher Vergößerung (20mm-Okular) nutzen.

Mit der 67-fachen Vergrößerung (6mm-Okular) ist es Zufall, das Beobachtungsobjekt zu treffen. Da man ja bei dieser Vergrößerung bei astronomischen Beobachtungen ständig nachführen muss, ist das Beobachtungsobjekt auch gleich wieder aus dem Gesichtsfeld verschwunden.

Immerhin habe ich neben dem Erdmond Jupiter samt 3 Monden und den Saturn sehen können. Der Saturn erscheint als ovales, in allen Farben schillerndes Scheibchen. Ich nahm es mit Humor. Es gibt also nicht nur achromatische, sondern auch chromatische Refraktoren! Mit der Barlow-Linse war leider kein Fokussieren möglich.

Das machte auch nichts, weil das Teleskop lediglich sehr eingeschränkt brauchbar ist mit 20-facher Vergrößerung. Hier liegt neben der mech. Mängel außerdem ein technischer Defekt vor. Als letzten Test gönnte ich mir eine Sonnenbeobachtung.

Mit der 20-fachen Vergrößerung war die Sonne nur als Scheibe zu erkennen, bei der 67-fachen Vergrößerung meine ich kurzzeitig sogar Sonnenflecken gesehen zu haben. Das Einrichten war mit der wackeligen Mechanik schwierig, denn bei Sonnenbeobachtungen darf man auf keinen Fall das Sucherteleskop verwenden.

Denn im Gegensatz zum Hauptteleskop gibt es hier keinen Sonnenfilter. Hier besteht höchste Gefahr für die Augen! Darauf sollte unbedingt hingewiesen werden, vor allem, wenn noch ein paar Kinder herumspringen und “auch mal” gucken möchten.

Bevor ich dann doch im Eifer der Sonnenflecken-Suche gedankenlos durch das Sucherteleskop schaue, wie bei den Sternenbeobachtungen in der Nacht zuvor stundenlang praktiziert habe, packte ich lieber alles wieder ein und schickte es zurück.

Schade, im Ansatz gut, aber leider schlecht realisiert. Der Name “Levenhuk” soll wohl Assoziationen zu dem niederländischen Naturforscher Leeuwenhoek (Pionier auf dem Gebiet der Mikroskopie) wecken. Ich glaube, mit einem Fernglas 8×40 oder 10×50 ist man besser bedient.

Klar haben wir hier weniger Vergrößerung, aber mit dem Teleskop war ja auch nur die 20-fache Vergrößerung einigermaßen verwendbar. Dafür ist ein Fernglas kompakter, leichter und dabei auch etwas preiswerter zu haben – und hat zwei Okulare! Für ein astronomisches Telekop (auch für ein Einsteigergerät) sollte man mindestens den doppelten oder dreifachen Betrag anlegen, wenn man Freude daran haben möchte.

Das beste Teleskop bringt nichts, wenn Stativ und Montierung nichts taugen. Beim Stativ sollte eine Ablage für Okulare vorhanden sein, da man Objektive häufiger wechselt. Wenn man bedenkt, dass man für ein gutes Fernglas weitaus mehr ausgeben kann, braucht man sich über die “Qualität” dieses “Allround-Teleskops” nicht zu wundern.

TranslateShow in original languageДля начинающих отличный вариант, ребёнку сделали подарок. Сами тоже с удовольствием будем пользоваться. Можно не только на звезды смотреть, но и на природу брать и наблюдать.

Ещё и на скидку попали, в общем довольны.

I purchased this scope just for using my cell phone on a Celestron NEXYZ camera mount and that works great. The focuser works well and holds true. The built in Barlow gives my eyepieces some extra oomph too.

The tripod is okay, not the best, but certainly not the worst. The GEM works great and I plan on using it with a couple of mt refractors too. The red dot finder did not work properly. No dot projection no matter how far I turned the knobs.

Possibly a defective unit, but I would think Celestron’s QA would have found that before packing. Not a big deal as I can swap it out with a laser. Got it on a great sale so it was a good value for me.

This is my first telescope since I was a kid. I did not know much of what I should look for. This scope is a great start for a reasonable price. With the EQ mount and red dot indicator, set up is a breeze! You can easily make out Saturn with its rings and at least one moon as well as Jupiter, its bands and its four Galilean moons.

Viewing some deepspace objects such as the Orion Nebula and Andromeda Galaxy is also possible. I purchased an additional Barlow x2 lens, which helps with some of these difficult objects. With the tripod legs fully extended, there is a lot of shake in the scope.

I usually leave them completely collapsed and sit on the ground for the stability. The rack and pinion focuser seems a bit sloppy and can make for tough fine tune focusing of planets and deep space objects.

I purchased an eyepiece CMOS camera, but have not had the patience to use it for much given the difficult focusing.

This is an excellent telescope package for anyone with more than a passing interest in stargazing. The assembly was not too hard – sometimes the pictures helped more than the directions – but everything went together once we knew where it went.

The tripod is solid and fully adjustable – much better than the “camera” tripods that some equipment comes with. With all of the gear driven adjustments the scope is easy to point and adjust in small increments – perfect for tracking an object as we move under it.

The spotter scope is a real boon as the adjustable intensity of the “red dot” allows it to be bright enough to pinpoint the moon crater and dim enough not to obscure the dimmer stars as you line up the view.

My wife was amazed to see the moon as it appears in pictures, and the double stars in the Big Dipper’s handle were easily resolved. We are looking forward to many nights of learning (or relearning) the skies in the coming months.

This is an investment that is well worth the price. It is designed to last and has the capability to be expanded with different eyepieces and accessories as your focus changes. Our first accessory will probably be the DSLR adapter.

The only downside of this telescope is that it cannot clear the clouds away. I had to content myself with terrestrial viewing for a week or so before I could actually look up! This is the best Anniversary present I have ever been given.